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The “ultra-luxury country club” of Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club offers invited members access to a 1,000-acre sports facility that includes a private ski slope, polo club, hunting club, luxury spa and – for those with any energy left – a wonderful 18-hole golf course.

Carved out of mature woodland, the 7,491-yard layout lies on the northern outskirts of Moscow and it became Russia’s first Nicklaus Design course when it opened in 2008.

At the time, the Golden Bear called it one of the top ten courses that he’d built so far and it received widespread praise two years later when it hosted the Russian Challenge Cup on the European Challenge Tour, an event won by Carlos Del Moral.

The signature hole is the 455-yard par four 7th, where a blind tee shot is played to a downhill fairway that doglegs to the left. The green is well guarded by water to the front with bunkers on either side but – apart from the professionals during tournament play – who really cares what score you run up on such a visually stunning hole?

In July 2013, the European Tour returned to Russia after a five-year gap. 

 last hosted the Russian Open in 2008, but the re-branded and re-kindled Russian Open moved north of the capital to the exclusive Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club. Michael Hoey lifted the 2013 title, winning emphatically by four shots to become the first player from Northern Ireland to win the Russian Open.

Tseleevo

Continental Europe

The “ultra-luxury country club” of Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club offers invited members access to a 1,000-acre sports facility...

The first Russian Jack Nicklaus Signature course appeared at 

 in 2008 and six years elapsed before the second one arrived at Skolkovo Golf Club in Moscow, where half a dozen lakes and over a hundred bunkers present much of the strategic challenge.

The golf course lies within the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a high technology business area developed by the government to promote cutting edge science and technology projects, and it provides one of the sporting elements for this Russian “Silicon Valley” setup.

The Russian Open championship reappeared on the European Tour schedule in 2003 and eight editions were hosted at 

 and Tseleevo before it made its way to Skolkovo in 2015, where Lee Slattery won the event by one shot from his nearest challenger.

“We were proud when the M2M Russian Open was played at our first golf course design in Russia,” Jack Nicklaus said, “and now we are pleased and honored that the event has moved to Skolkovo, just one year after its opening in the heart of Moscow.”

Jack continued: “Skolkovo is a beautiful golf course playing across a wonderful piece of property. On behalf of all the teams who collaborated on Skolkovo, we are proud of what we have accomplished and for the contributions we hope we are making to the growth of the game of golf in Russia.”

Skolkovo

The first Russian Jack Nicklaus Signature course appeared at Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club in 2008 and six years elapsed before the second one arrived at Skolkovo Golf Club in Moscow...

The course at Raevo Golf & Country Club is the third Jack Nicklaus design project to open in the Moscow region. Previously, the Golden Bear had worked at Tseleevo Golf and Polo Club (2008) and Skolkovo Golf Club (2014) and this 18-hole layout took an arduous three years to complete, thanks mainly to the short construction season, before opening in 2019.

Set within a densely wooded area close to the capital, the course has been built to a very high specification, with the installation of sand capping and an extensive network of drainage to help get play under way quickly after the long winter. Tees, greens and fairways are carpeted with creeping bentgrass and rough areas are a mix of bluegrass and fine fescue.

Conditioning and presentation are second to none here but players must beware of straying into either the bunkers or the rough – for sure, Raevo isn’t set up for resort-style golf. “The golf will be challenging, but more importantly, it will be natural, playable, memorable,” says Jack Nicklaus. “That’s what you want in a good course. You want to be motivated by the test of golf but inspired to come back.”

Raevo

Set out on a gently rolling, forested property with a number of beautiful water hazards in play, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at Raevo Golf & Country Club has been extensively drained and sand capped to help extend Moscow’s short playing season.

Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club is located a mere 20 miles north of Moscow in an historic area of Russia. Yachting takes place on the nearby Pestovskoye reservoir, which is one of the largest man-made lakes along the Moscow Canal system. Golf, on the other hand, is played on part of Prince Serebryany’s 16th century patrimonial estate. The impressive manor houses of Nikolskoye-Prozorovskoye and Marfino are located close by.

The English father and son team of Dave and Paul Thomas designed Pestovo as a Russian championship course that will compete with 

 in terms of quality and challenge. The architects achieved their objectives, as Pestovo hosted the Russian Seniors Open in July 2008, which Welshman Ian Woosnam won.

“I am delighted to have had an opportunity to be involved in this stunning golf project.” Said Dave Thomas, “I am particularly excited about this course and believe it will have fantastic potential and play a significant part in the development of golf in Russia. While we have tried to create a challenging course for the championship players, I believe we have introduced a balance that will encourage and satisfy the golfers of all levels, abilities and skills”.

The course can be stretched out beyond 7,000 yards from the tips but numerous tees will make the course playable for all levels of golfer. The course is routed in a snake-like figure of eight and the holes and topography vary between forest and open country. The Pestovo project is unique in Russia featuring not only sailing and golf but also a lifestyle spa and equestrian centre which will provide the perfect recreational facilities for those that choose to live in the homes and apartments which will be developed around the course.

The Dave and Paul Thomas company also fashioned the course at Pine Creek Golf Club at Yekaterinburg in Russia.

Pestovo

The English father and son team of Dave and Paul Thomas designed Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club as a Russian championship course that will compete with Moscow CC in terms of quality and challenge.

Located a 90-minute drive from St Petersburg city centre, the course at Gorki Golf & Resort is a Lassi Pekka Tilander design that’s laid out in the style of an inland links with wide, fast-running fairways and large, multiform bunkers. The spacious clubhouse is complemented by a 30-room 4-star hotel, eight cottages accommodating up to 40 people, and a spa with massage room, steam room, sauna and jacuzzi.


Extending to 6,560 metres in length and playing to a par of 72, the layout is configured as two returning nines, each of which start with a testing par five hole. Water only comes into play at a couple of holes: the first and longest of the par threes at the 211-metre 5th, where a pond lies to the front left of the green, and the uphill par four 9th, with a narrow ditch cutting diagonally across the fairway short of the green.

Other notable holes include the short par four 2nd (with a long, narrow bunker running along the right of the fairway); the right doglegging par five 7th (a centreline bunker at the drive landing area potentially hampering progress here); the long par three 15th (featuring a largely hidden punchbowl green); and the tough par four 16th (rated stroke index 2) which plays to a raised green with befuddling runoff slopes.

Gorki

Designed by Lassi Pekka Tilander, the course at Gorki Golf & Resort sits around seventy kilometres southwest of Saint Petersburg. Built in two phases in the style of an inland links, the layout incorporates wide fairways and large, multiform bunkers.

The brief from the Russian client when European Golf Design worked on the Zavidovo PGA National course was to produce an 18-hole layout capable of hosting professional events so this track offers golf on a big scale.

Developed by the giant AGRANTA conglomerate and managed by industry specialists, Braemar Golf, the Zavidovo PGA National Russia course was constructed by local contractors GeoKam, working to the plans of architect David Sampson.

Situated just over an hour’s drive from Moscow, beside a tributary of the River Volga and enclosed within a forest of pine and birch trees, the course was designed with wide, mainly doglegged fairways, reasonably contoured greens and extraordinary heather-fringed bunkers.

Opened in late 2012, Zavidovo has been described as having the look and the feel of a traditional Scottish layout, with a blend of heathland and links features and a few water hazards thrown in to add to the challenge.

Notable holes include the right doglegged short par four 6th and the 142-metre 7th, labelled in the course guide as “petite but perplexing”. On the back nine, the heavily contoured green on the par three 12th demands respect, as does the pair of strong par fours at holes 15 and 16, which are more than capable of derailing a good score.

The most enthralling hole on the card arrives late in the round at the par three 17th, where a nerve jangling tee shot must carry a sizeable body of water to reach the safety of the green. Designer David Sampson described the hole to us as follows:

“The final short hole and probably the most ‘picture postcard’ hole on the course. A tee shot, which suits a left-to-right shot, will require some form of carry over the large water hazard; the amount of carry lessening the further forward the markers are located. The short approach fairway is set on a diagonal, affording golfers the option of playing away from the lake, but the largest bunker on the course set right and back-right will likely ensnare the overly cautious. Each and every time, it’s wise to aim for the plateau ridge which dominates in the higher middle portion of the green. Avoid taking the direct route to the small back left pin and rather choose to use the contours to coax it close. The hole really is a truly beautiful and dramatic one-shotter, coming late on in the round, to test those nerves.”

Zavidovo PGA National

The brief from the Russian client when European Golf Design worked on the Zavidovo PGA National course was to produce a layout capable of hosting professional events so this track offers golf on a big scale.

Armand Hammer, one time chairman of Occidental Oil Company, told the former Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev a couple of ways of attracting foreign investment to the old USSR were the provision of comfortable limousines and golf courses for American businessmen.

The old Soviet government disregarded the advice, of course, and it was not until much later in the late 1980s that the new Russian regime embraced the game of golf. The first course was constructed for the Moscow City Golf Club under the direction of its founder, former Swedish ice hockey player, Sven Tumba. The Moscow Country Club followed it soon after.

Located in Nakhabino, just north west of the capital, the Moscow County Club was created in 1993 as the first golf development of GlavUpDK, a department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the masterminds behind the project were Alexander S. Zinoviev (first deputy director of the state department), Ivan Sergyev and Antti Peltoniemi.

The course sits on a 300-acre property, incorporating a 131-room hotel with all the usual leisure facilities like swimming pools, solarium, massage and beauty treatment rooms. An adjoining sports complex offers activities as varied as squash, volleyball and fishing.

Course architect Robert Trent Jones Jnr routed the holes through a birch tree forest and he said that the layout; “was designed to be a very traditional parkland course… the concept is classic strategy with hazards placed to create risks and rewards thus providing exciting, enjoyable golf.”Almost half the holes at the Moscow Country Club course have water to contend with, especially at the signature, 576-yard par five 5th. The drive must be played to a landing area to the right of water then the second shot has to be hit to left of the next water hazard. Only then, after tacking your way from the tee, can an approach be played – over water again – to the green.

Moscow Country Club hosted the Russian Open for six consecutive years from 2003 to 2008. After a five-year hiatus, the tournament was rekindled in 2013 and relocated to 

Paul Thomas of Dave Thomas Ltd. was commissioned by Moscow Country Club in 2013-2014 to undertake substantial infrastructure improvements, including new cart paths, extensive fairway drainage works and bunker relining. The effect of these changes has allowed play to start earlier in the year and to continue later into autumn before the arrival of the long Russian winter.

Moscow

Almost half the holes at the Moscow Country Club golf course have water to contend with, especially at the signature, 576-yard par five 5th.

Situated an hour’s drive northeast of St Petersburg city centre, the golf course at MillCreek is the centrepiece of a large residential development that also includes a 5-star hotel with spa and swimming pool. There’s also a beach club on the main lake within the property but if beach volleyball sounds a bit too strenuous for you then perhaps the nearby fishing club will fit the bill instead.

Ross McMurray from European Golf Design was the architect behind a highly innovative golf project which also features extensive practice facilities and a 3-hole academy course. The landscape is pretty flat with a high water table but the excavation of several lakes provided sufficient amounts of sandy soil to raise the fairways and shape the holes.

There are two separate teeing areas on each hole, creating a Red and Blue course, both of which have been certified by the Russian Golf Association. Not only that, by cutting across playing corridors and using greens that can be approached from different directions, alternative courses can be played when these cross-country options are utilised.

It’s been called “Kaleidescope Golf” by owner Sergey Borisov and the club’s website now lists the seven most popular options, which include “Joker’s Course” and St Andrew’s Cross Course” in tribute to Jeremy Slessor and Ross McMurray of EGD. Many will no doubt endorse the words of Ross McMurray when says MillCreek is “a testament to the aspirations and enthusiasm of a client who has not been afraid to push the boundaries that traditional golf developments offer.”

MillCreek

The MillCreek Country Club course is the centrepiece of a major residential development outside Saint Petersburg which features an innovative “kaleidescope golf” routing from Ross McMurray of European Golf Design, allowing many alternative playing options.

Occupying a densely forested property less than a 1.5-hour drive from Moscow city centre, the course at Forest Hills Golf Club is a co-design by Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest which opened for play in 2012. The club has its own hotel, offering guests19 rooms of cosy chalet-style accommodation, along with a clubhouse restaurant serving traditional Russian and European cuisine.

Measuring 6,709 metres from the back tees, the course is set in an out and back fashion. Elevation changes are frequent, bunkers are plentiful, and the greens are massive – indeed, the 18th is said to be one of the largest in Europe at around 20,000 square feet. Water comes into play only once during the round, in the shape of a small lake situated between the par five 13th and par four 14th.

Highlight holes include short par fours at the severely right doglegging 2nd and the heavily sand-protected 10th; the par five 7th located at the top of a hill overlooking a valley; the longest of the par threes at the 213-metre 17th; and the tough closing hole (rated stroke index 3) which swings markedly left from the tee towards the enormous home green.

We asked Steve Forrest about this final putting surface and he told us:

“As I recall, the owner wanted to make a statement for the finish. In order to make the green more interesting, we included a couple of Biarritz-like waves that were perpendicular to the line of play and the three big left side bunkers helped to keep everything in good proportion visually.”

Forest Hills

Located outside the small village of Matveykovo, around 85 kilometres northwest of Moscow, the course at Forest Hills Golf Club is an Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest design that forms only one component of an enterprising 1,100-acre development.

Situated close to the Neva River estuary on the outskirts of St Petersburg, the course at Peterhof Golf Club opened for play in 2017, with eighteen holes routed around half a dozen ponds and lakes. The layout extends to 6,067 metres from the back markers, playing to a par of 71 (35 on the front nine and 36 on the back nine).

We were a little confused when the club’s website stated “the golf course was designed by architect duo Greg Norman and Steve Forest” so we asked Steve if he really did co-design the layout alongside the Great White Shark. This is what he told us:

“Peterhof is in a terrific location – out the busy St. Petersburg highway past the Constantine Palace in Strelna and just 3 kilometres before the Peterhof Palace and its fabulous fountains – which is definitely on par with Versailles.

The original owner of the project was Protcion, our client for Forest Hills. Greg Norman was hired as the architect for the St. Petersburg site and his team produced a spacious layout, complete with a full-size practice range/academy.

Construction started just prior to the economic collapse in 2008-2010 but a couple of years later, a new group bought the property – although the practice range/academy land was not included – and wanted to add a residential component.

We were approached to come on board and we took on the task of fitting 18 holes, a practice range and a residential development on land that had previously only accommodated 18 holes of golf.

Somehow, we were able to fit it all in, working with the Norman-plan lakes that had already begun to be excavated. It’s a links-style course with only a few trees along the St. Petersburg highway. It seems to have a lively membership and is still going strong.”

Highlight holes include a tough par five opening hole (rated stroke index 2), where golfers need to avoid a lake to the right of the fairway on their way to a heavily sand-protected green. The 13th and 14th play over and across the same small lake, while the short par three 16th plays to a peninsula green that’s also flanked by four bunkers.

Peterhof

Built on a relatively flat site close to the Neva River estuary, around thirty kilometres from Saint Petersburg city centre, the Peterhof Golf Club course is a Hills Forrest layout with six different ponds and lakes integrated into its design.

Everyone knows that Russia is a massive country but as a golfing nation it’s tiny. A decade ago, golf in Russia was a novelty and the preserve of wealthy diplomats rather than a serious professional sport. But things are changing and the pleasures of the Royal & Ancient game are slowly but surely being discovered.

Naturally, Russians are stereotyped as Cossack dancing, vodka drinking, fur hat wearing, Lada driving folk who love all night parties. There must be some exceptions? This huge country is so diverse that we couldn’t possibly even begin to describe it here, so we’ll get straight on to the golf.

 put Russia firmly on the golfing map, but there are now thirty golf courses in the country and more are either in the planning or construction stages.

Mill Creek Golf Club in St Petersburg opened for business at the end of 2017. Designed by Ross McMurray from European Golf Design, the golf facility is owned by Sergey Borisov, who asked the architect to lay out a course that can be played in multiple ways, using two distinct teeing areas on every hole. Not only that, additional tees offering alternative directions of play allow golfers to indulge in a form of cross-country golf across the property – welcome to the brave new world of ‘Kaleidescope Golf’.


If you've played some of Russia's golf courses and would like to help shape our future Russian golf course rankings, we’d love to hear from you, so please get in touch. Dosvidania for now.

We learned of a new course opening in late 2022 at AK Bars Golf Resort in Kazan, with holes laid out on the banks of the Volga river by the Engo Group working to a design by Harradine Golf. The project was led by Michael Harradine from his father Peter and colleague Matt Osborne and they designed three lakes to provide enough fill – along with dredged material from the river – to raise the playing corridors on the flood-prone site by an average of two metres.

Due to real estate considerations, only the par three 17th and par four 18th are laid out adjacent to the river. Other highlight holes include the left doglegging par four 6th (with a lake to the right after the bend in the fairway) and the par five 16th, which has water all the way down the left side of the hole as it bends slightly left towards the green.

Our Russian golf course rankings were last updated in February 2020.
